Emergency plan for city’s drug users and homeless

Nurse warns of ‘devastating’ effects of virus spread among Dundee’s vulnerable

An outbreak of coronavirus among Dundee’s drug users and homeless people would have “devastating” effects, a city nurse has said.

Kirsty Nelson, a parish nurse at Steeple Church and community support worker at Eagles Wings Trust homeless charity, said contingency plans were being put in place to prevent a spread of the virus among vulnerable groups.

Various third sector groups are collaborating among each other and working with the NHS to mitigate the impact of a potential outbreak.

We Are With You, formerly called Addaction, is continuing to support people with addiction over the phone and is advising them how to continue with treatment during self-isolation in order to avoid a spike in drug deaths.

Meanwhile Dundee Survival Group, which provides supported accommodation to homeless people, has earmarked a section of its premises for anyone showing symptoms of Covid19 and needing to be quarantined.

Kirsty said: “We quickly noticed that those coming to our drop-in session really weren’t aware of the seriousness of what was going on, perhaps due to their limited access to TV, newspapers and internet.

“We’ve now explained the situation to them and we are going to be providing bags of food and hot drinks at the door, but no drop-in sessions. We have also linked up with the parish nursing team.”

She added: “So far no one has tested positive or had symptoms that we know of – but an outbreak of the virus in the drug user and/or homeless community would be absolutely devastating.

“A lot of them have underlying health conditions, aren’t registered with a GP and are unable to manage caring for their health”.

Dave Barrie, service manager at We Are With You, said he did not expect there to be a change to the availability of methadone prescriptions.

He added: “There is a lot of planning taking place with our partners and with the NHS, with the objective of helping people continue with their drug and alcohol treatment. The reality is that resources will be stretched for people in life-threatening situations so we’re trying to provide as much support over the phone to prevent drug deaths.

“We are trying to limit face-to-face work, it’s a difficult balance between keeping our staff safe and our service users supported”.

Shirish Patel, CEO of Dundee Survival Group, said the organisation had put in place emergency plans to deal with a potential virus outbreak.

He explained: “If any of our tenants show symptoms we will quarantine them on the top floor and ensure they have sufficient food and will put them in touch with medical staff.

“We are also accepting donations of tinned food, which would be gratefully received.”

Shelter Scotland said its staff and volunteers in Dundee were delivering food and care packages to the vulnerable and elderly.

NHS Tayside did not respond to a request for comment.

Dave Barrie, service manager at We Are With You, said support is being provided over the phone.